When I hear the word “encaustic,” my mind immediately jumps to paintings. That is why, until attending the Third Annual Encaustic Painting Conference this June, I had not often looked for, or even paid attention to, sculpture as a medium for the use of encaustic. At the conference I had the pleasure of attending an encaustic sculpture talk by Kim Bernard, who also showed her work at the conference.

Kim covered the work of nine artists. I will share a small sampling of these, hopefully demonstrating the range of encaustic as a sculpting medium.

First up is my personal favorite, Martin Kline. I am mesmerized by his ability to continue such an organic form as wood and do it in such an unexpected way with startlingly bright colors. Be sure to check out more of his work.

Green House, encaustic on wood, 20″ x 12″ x 12″

Sylvia Netzer creates impressively large encaustic sculptures such as this one.

Glen Gary OLY, 29 x 83 x 31

Laura Moriarty has a very interesting technique. She first builds up layers and layers of wax and color on wood, then scrapes the entire thing off and reshapes the wax into beautiful formations.

Skerry, pigmented beeswax, approx. 20 x 30 ft.

You can see more of her fascinating process in this video

Last up is Kim Bernard, who put on this talk and showed at the conference. Here is piece from her Lead and Encaustic series:

Each of these artists brings something unique to sculpting with encaustic. Do you have a favorite encaustic sculptor? Please share in the comments.

Well, this is the last of our reports from the Encaustic Painting Conference. We hope you enjoyed learning a bit through out experience, and we hope you will join us next year at he conference!